Anime, Godzilla, J-Noise, J-Music, and Manga. That by any other definition is J-Pop. That sub culture that beats and pulses below the surface of main stream America. This is our world, a world where anything is possible. But why? Why has this world of Japanease popular culture, become part of the land of the free? The answer is quite simple, it is us. We, the modren Otaku. We have found the gold mine of J-Pop and have brought it to the US creating a sub culture that hides in plain view. Alot of things have been said about we Otaku and the one comment that I agree with alot is this. We are the bastard children of James Bond and Kissy Suzuki. If you don't know what I'm talking about, it's like this. In 1959 Ian Fleming traveled to Japan. There he wrote the eleventh James Bond novel You Only Live Twice. At the end of this novel an amnesiac James Bond is sailing towards Russia leaving a Japanease woman by the name of Kissy Suzuki pregnant with his child. That child is us, we are east meets west, Tokyo meets New York. But there is one thing we must always remeber.
We are a sub culture, plain and simple. Anime and Godzilla, not well known but there just the same. We must accept that we will never be a part of main stream America. And perhaps it's better this way, as I write this I am sitting in my school's cafateria with my friends. I realize that they don't appreciate J-Pop at all. They think that Anime is nothing but "big eyes, big boobs, big guns." To them Godzilla deserves nothing more than witty coments, bad jokes the proof of a bad imagination. But perhaps beaing in a sub culture isn't that bad. We seem to care nothing about what goes on in the main stream. For example Holly Wood has'nt made a good giant monster film scince the 1950's. But in our sub culture Godzilla and Gamera still chew up cities and spit them out. We will always be here. Long after Leonardo DeCaprio is no longer the sexiest man in Holly Wood, long after the Back Street Boys have been replaced by a new group we will still endure. We may adapt to what ever guise is needed for the time, but we'll still be here. Even as I write this Japan is produceing even more high quality animation, Godzilla Millenium: 2000 has hit their theatures, Anime companies across the US are dubbbing, subbing, and selling. This sub culture that we have created is thriveing. This thing of ours. So how does what I've told you fit into your J-Pop philosiphy? Do you...
-Like an American Godzilla movie
-Think Japans Godzilla is the best
-Don't like Godzilla at all
-Think that Pokemon is all Anime has to offer
-Hate that little yellow rat?
-Know what Anime has to offer
And if people ask what J-Pop is simply tell them its like...
-Tokyo and New York
-Teriaki and doughnut shops
-Anime and Disniy
-Toho and Tri-Star
-James Bond and Kissy Suzuki
-East meets West
So however you look at it, enjoy yourselfs the time is ripe, the future is ours.
-for the entire J-Pop community may we always endure
Ethan Febuary, 18 2000